The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of an unnamed, unpatented proprietary seed parent of Kalanchoe luciae with the pollen parent of an unpatented, proprietary Kalanchoe hybrida referred to as Kalanchoe ‘21’. The cross pollination was made during December 2015 in Vista, Calif., at a commercial greenhouse. The new cultivar ‘Dragonfire’ was discovered by the inventor, Renee O'Connell in July 2016 in Vista, Calif., at a commercial greenhouse.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Dragonfire’ was first performed in Vista, Calif., at a commercial greenhouse, by terminal vegetative cuttings in July 2016. Kalanchoe ‘Dragonfire’ has since produced multiple generations and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.